Project History
TransitWorks began in 1997 as a collaborative initiative, joining the business community, local municipalities, Boston region transit riders, and other interests under a single umbrella organization. This collaboration was dedicated to maintaining the quality and service levels of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA), and attempted to help the MBTA take aggressive action to retain and renew relationships with the riding public in order to improve MBTA customer satisfaction, stem a loss in transit ridership, and build public support for the MBTA. The collaboration realized some success over a four year period using all volunteer staff time. After 2001, the initial collaborators of TransitWorks (the Artery Business Committee, now A Better City; the Artery Business Committee Transportation Management Association, now A Better City Transportation Management Association; and the MBTA Advisory Board) continued to see the opportunity and promise of TransitWorks and reestablished the project by hiring a full time staff person in 2004. Today, TransitWorks is designed to repeat and expand upon the work completed from 1997-2001, through system wide evaluations and projects designed to address specific issues at the MBTA.
2005 Project History & Summaries
2005 Automated Fare Collection (AFC) Focus Group
MBTA rider focus group formed to evaluate modifications that would make Automated Fare Collection fare boxes more user friendly.
2005 Orange Line Station Evaluation
A first person evaluation was conducted of each station along the MBTA’s Orange Line in order to assess the conditions and maintenance of Orange Line stations from a rider’s perspective. The goal of this project was to help the MBTA further maintain and improve subway stations while simultaneously improving rider satisfaction.
2005 Automated FARE Collection Blue Line Focus Group
MBTA rider focus group formed to analyze and garner feedback from riders regarding the piloting of the Automated Fare Collection on the Blue Line. The objective was to generate first person user experience from the riders’ perspective to inform future AFC roll out throughout the MBTA system.
2005 Transit Diary Study
A first person diary recording program designed to both solicit customer satisfaction feedback related to specific MBTA riding experiences, as well as generate a rich data set to complement the 2004 Ridership Survey data.
2005 B Line Stop Elimination Survey
The B Line Stop Elimination Survey was conducted by MBTA personnel in January 2005, and was designed to capture rider opinion concerning the pilot B Line Stop Elimination Program in place since April, 2004.
